


Touch

by L56895



Category: Final Fantasy X-2
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 22:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16146629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L56895/pseuds/L56895
Summary: Sometimes touch says more than words.





	Touch

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually a cheeky reworking of part of a fic I wrote in another fandom years ago. I reread it recently and it struck me that some of the ideas would work well for these characters too. Hopefully it works!

He touches her sparingly when they are at the Luca offices together.

They know that her presence at the League is a contentious one, frowned upon by some people and welcomed by others, and they act appropriately. Lucil -like the other Youth Leaguers- always nods politely to her, a glint in her eye, but some of the less senior members of the new alliance had their hearts set on a working relationship with the Leblanc Syndicate. Her very existence ensured that would never happen. Even some of the younger Guado, who witnessed the full wrath of Leblanc after they went public with their relationship, give her a wide berth in the corridor.

Sometimes she feels his hand on the small of her back as he guides her through the meeting room. A quick touch of fingertips when he hands her a sphere to watch. He is always sure to brush his knuckles against her palm when he hands her one of their findings, always puts it straight in her hands and looks her directly in the eye. It's one of the few times his professionalism slips and she sees the lust in his eyes. But then the mask is back, the acknowledgement that people make allowances enough for them, that he doesn't want to push anything further and risk losing their tenuous position within the same walls together. Baralai tells them that they’re being ridiculous, that he and Gippal would go to the ends of the earth to support them, but she sees the way the older men, relics of an age gone past, glare at her when they emerge from a meeting. At the end of the day he slips his hand in to hers as they walk on to the airship together.

He touches her possessively when they're in battle.

That hyper-awareness of her every move, that overpowering need to know that she is safe has never left him. Even after all this time. They have nearly lost one another too many times now for him to ever be completely convinced that they'll both make it back in one piece. They work in perfect sync as a team; she reads his every expression, every hand gesture, as if she can see his thoughts; but he still grips her elbow tightly when they're about to take on a fiend together. Still wraps his arm around her waist to pull her out of danger. She'd feel annoyed, if her stomach wasn't still butterflying and her nerves weren't still tinging every time she felt his strong hands on her. On hard days, when they are weak from the fight and it feels too much like a close call, he holds her tight to him before they climb the rocks back home at Mushroom Rock Road. She feels his relief in the way he buries his hand in her hair, pulls her against his hot mouth and sighs her name. She is his Paine, his hero, his rock and his partner, and she feels it most in those heavy, quiet seconds before they head back to the Headquarters.

He touches her often when they're with friends.

Not constantly, not jealously, but quick, deliberate moves to remind her that he's there. A press of the lips to her forehead when he arrives later than the rest of them. A squeeze of her hand when he gets up from the table to take an offered sphere from Baralai. A brush of the fingertips against her hip when they're waiting for the airship to take them home from Besaid. Sometimes she catches Rikku’s eye- she never misses anything where Paine’s love life is concerned- and blushes because it is so familiar, so  _ _ordinary__  a thing for him to be doing when she was scared she could never be normal. Better still are the times when Gippal mocks him for his newfound tactile nature- his  _you got it bad, Noojster _.__ He always laughs, softly, and pulls her to him to kiss her forehead. His comfort buoys her, eases away any sense of not belonging she has felt over the past two years.

He touches her like fine china behind closed doors.

It's such a stark difference when they're on their own. He is almost fragile, reverent, in the way he approaches her; not nervous as such, but disbelieving that she leaves herself open for him. For so long they danced around one another that every touch now seems like an extension of the tango they're been performing for so much of their turbulent relationship. Except now that they get so much time alone they are waltzing; gliding around in harmony. He holds her tenderly from behind when she's looking out from the observation deck, presses his lips to the back of her neck. His favourite spot to kiss her on the crowded boat back in their Crimson Squad days. When he takes her to bed he is more vocal than she had ever expected him to be; all  _Can I?_ and  _Is this ok?_ and  _I need you _.__ He lays her down like a baby bird, only ever returning to the possessive roughness that he exhibits in his daily life when she calls out for it. When he moans and shudders and cries out on top of her he always presses his fingertips roughly in to her flesh, only to kiss and caress and stroke and cradle when he returns to himself.

He tells her he loves her in all those ways too; an abrupt aside when they leave their bedroom in the morning, telling her to look after herself; a heavy pant when he dispatches a fiend while they track sphere waves and then turns to check on her; a casual  _this is why I love you_ when she brings him food to the office he has shut himself away in all day; and then whispers between kisses, between caresses, as he promises with his hands and his lips that he is hers forever.


End file.
